HOLLOW

WATCH OUT: THIS IS LESSER AND UNKNOWN PROGROCK!

FIRST REVIEW OF THIS ALBUM

Little Atlas is an USA four piece band (with an additional female singer) that was founded in the Nineties, in 1998 they released their debut CD entitled Neverwordly. This new album is their fourth, released in 2007. One can conclude that Little Atlas took their time to produce this new album and indeed, it has paid off, what a varied and exciting progrock album with strong vocals!

The 10 compositions are song-oriented but due to the frequent shifting moods, breaks and strong soli on several instruments, Little Atlas succeeds to keep my attention during this new album. A very tasteful extra dimension is the use of the vintage keyboards, from choir-Mellotron and Hammond organ to Minimoog synthesizer and Fender Rhodes electric piano. Despite these typically Seventies keyboards, Little Atlas doesn't sound dated. In contrary, they sound fresh and modern, here are a few examples. The long track Silence contains lots of variety, from an intro with soaring keyboards, a slow rhythm with saxophone and a break with choir- Mellotron to compelling with propulsive drums and rhythm-guitar, a mid-tempo with fluent piano runs and a dreamy final part with sensitive electric guitar, emotional vocals and beautul flute. In Paranoiac the atmosphere is often compelling with powerful Hammond waves, sensational Minimoog flights, biting guitar and strong interplay between keyboards and guitar. My highlight is the track Symbiosis featuring lots of shifting moods and dynamics, exciting work on guitar and keyboards and a strong build-up to a compelling, verybombastic grand finale. The final song Special contains a warm sound with piano, acoustic guitar and violin, then a solo on acoustic guitar and in the end we can enjoy a synthesizer solo that delivers a sound that is mighty close to Lucky Man by Keith Emerson.

This is a very good new album by Little Atlas, the band has made a stuning progression, perhaps Hollow will be the breakthrough for these crafted and creative musicians. Highly recommended!

After so many flattering around "Hollow" I had to run the risk and check it by myself and I may tell you (for the case someone is reading it, which I doubt) that all good talks about this album is meritorious; I became greatly entertained. LITTLE ATLAS, a recently shaped prog act, reached their adulthood with a fine and ripe release, configured like a conceptual album, that will satiate a diversity of musical tastes, from those who prefer heavy and powerful tunes up to the ones who favor soft and catchy melodies. In addition, "Hollow" contains a bit of psychedelics and also fusion spices, neo-prog touches and experimental moods, displaying clearly the multiplicity of band's influences.

The album starts great with the roaring 'Hollow' which left no doubt about band members proficiency and song composing knowledge. It's hard, it's tough, and it's involving; there's a flavor of some 70s heavy rocks but this time with a neat and mature 21st Century approach. Next comes 'Silence', initially serene and agreeable, and later explosive with a blast of guitars, keyboards, drumming and sharp vocals. 'Paranoiac' keeps running the engaging atmosphere this time enriched with exquisite noises counterbalanced by fine guitar chords and enchanting tunes provided by the keyboards. With 'Contumacious' things apparently cool down but the air is filled with some exquisite pattern that grabs the hearer attention. 'Preying' could be dubbed as the cheesiest song in the album, although the tenderness is broken by spoken words and tempered moments; all steadily joyous.

'Orderly' opens album's second half not letting the climate fades; the track maintains the captivating nervousness that exhales from the entire work, while 'Hiding' brings a certain romantic substance emphasized by suave vocals with instrumentation flowing in accordance. 'Stage' rocks around the player and if the hearer feels a certain sleeping desire now it's time to revive. Album's peak is attained with 'Symbiosis', probably the best and most progressive track here; there's an uttered symbiosis of Dream Theater, Yes, Deep Purple and the likes, supplied by half-whispered and half-intense vocals and garnished by luxurious keyboards activity. 'Special' closes the album pleasantly; a very harmonic and melodic short song, nevertheless in consonance with the whole heard before.

All in all, a very impressive and remarkable effort, also surprising and uplifting when one looks for what's being done in the new progressive scenery; thus doubtlessly a fine addition to any prog music shelf.

It's quite original prog music

Having heard the previous two albums of Little Atlas, this new album "Hollow" (2007) does not surprise me musically as I am quite familiar with it. This is the kind of music that I admire in its entirety as an excellent music but it has failed to create a strong motive for me to re-spin the CD. It has happened with their previous two albums in which the CDs have been lying at shelf and I never re-spin long time ago since I got the CDs. It's probably most of the songs are straight forward with relatively minimum changes in music style from one point to another until it finishes. The opening track "Hollow" proves what I have just said. The music flows naturally in a sequence that can be followed by any music buffs - not necessary a prog man.

But at second track the band is willing to explore the music further with music horizon differs from previous track as well as any styles of its previous albums. In fact it uses an ambient opening in mellow style with the work of saxophone. The music moves slowly until in the middle of the track it moves into upbeat fast tempo with excellent arrangements. I think this is a very progressive song because it goes through multiple ups and downs with different styles.

"Paranoiac" starts beautifully with vintage organ sounds followed with a blast of music that reminds me to Spock's Beard. It's a cool intro. This is an attractive song with great combination of guitar, keyboard work in relatively fast tempo and energetic mode from start to end with some beautiful breaks through bass guitar and keyboard inventive notes in transition segments. It's a pleasure enjoying this track especially with its great keyboard solo and catchy piano work. It reminds me to Rick Wakeman but in different ways.

"Contimacious" starts nicely with acoustic guitar rhythms followed with drum work in which the tom sounds are quite unique and quite dominant followed with singing line. I can consider this is a ballad music in medium tempo. "Preying" opens with ambient piano followed with medium tempo music. This song includes a narration (a dialogue) in the middle of the track. At approx minute 2:00 the song turns into a reggae style with its unique guitar rhythm. "Orderly" starts mellow with a great piano work accompanied by acoustic guitar followed with choirs in ambient mood. The song moves into medium tempo music. "Hiding" is another ballad in mellow style formed by the combination of guitar and keyboard /piano.

"Stage" , the opening part reminds me to the music of Rush especially "Permanent Wave" album. "Symbiosis" is really a great track with complex opening combining keyboard, guitar and dynamic drumming and it then flows into break with powerful singing. "Special" concludes the album with good ballad, with great acoustic guitar work.

Overall, I consider this as an excellent addition to any prog music collection. The music of Little Atlas can be considered as original one because I can not find any peculiar influence that dominates the album. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Little Atlas' latest release Hollow is not exactly a hard album to get into. But to establish exactly how good it is is a lot harder, at least to me. The sound and style is in between neo prog and crossover in my opinion with a touch of eclectic prog (Paranoiac !). The style is quite unusual, it's most of all melodic but there are also dissonances detectable. They make the music a bit less accessible but like I said it's all in all not really hard to comprehend for an experienced progfan.

The songs are all in between 4 and 6 minutes with the exception of two out of the ten that are offered. So that's quite short for prog standards and it confirms in a way that this is not the usual neo prog which has longer compositions usually. On the other hand the songs are very compact so a lot is happening in most of them. The longest track is the second, called Silence and is the most interesting one to me. It starts calm and ambient but after three minutes the song gets to usual Little Atlas style, not too complicated that is. Because of the atmosphere it produces this is still the best song of the album in my opinion. Symbiosis is another great track.

For where the other songs are concerned: they are all of the same quality level, so pretty high but nothing truly exceptional I have to say. Final verdict is that it's a very good album just falling short for the excellence status. So I will round down to three (3,4).

Hollow, the latest album by Little Atlas, is another neo-prog piece showing a strong Genesis and Marillion influence. Nothing particularly special about that in concept - lots of bands try for a similar sound - but I think the band are trying to go for something a little bit more imaginative here. I say "I think" because, unfortunately, the album suffers a little from a rather poor mixing job; the instruments all tend to blend together, and whilst there's something to be said for trying out alternatives to the modern production aesthetic of having all the different instruments be clearly separated in the mix in this case the whole thing ends up sounding like a muddle; the vocals, for instance, are often indistinct because they get swallowed up in the mix. It's an interesting album but, to my ears, it could have been a lot better had more care been taken in the production department.